After All This Time
by hunnyfresh
Summary: Prompt from Stacy Vorosco: After thirty years of marriage, Emma forgets their anniversary for the first time


**Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon a Time or any recognizable characters.**

**AN: Prompt from **Stacy Vorosco: **Regina and Emma as an older couple. In this storyline, Emma is 65 and Regina is 72. Thanks for the great prompt! **

* * *

The alarm rang promptly at 7. Like for the last thirty years, Regina, quite nimble in her old age, remained the first to wake, clenching and releasing her fists from the arthritis that had settled in years prior before turning in the warmth that wrapped around her for over three decades.

She smiled as she looked upon the face of her wife, eyes shut and lips slightly parted. The wrinkles were settling on the blonde's forehead that Emma had invested in nearly every night cream to erase, but with every peck to her so-called imperfections, Emma forgot they were even there. She smoothed a hand across the younger woman's cheek, brushing back fading yellow curls before placing a peck to her wife's lips in greeting.

"Sleeping," Emma murmured, wrapping her arms tighter around Regina's waist and burying her face into the brunette's collarbone.

"Up, Emma," Regina scolded. "We have a busy day ahead of us."

"It'll still be busy in an hour," the blonde reasoned, already losing her battle to sleep.

Regina pulled Emma back with surprising strength and glared at the blonde whose eyes were now wide open. "Do you know what today is?"

The blonde looked dumbfounded. "Henry and the kids are visiting."

Regina stared at her wife incredulously before swatting at her shoulder and huffing out of bed.

"Wait," Emma scrambled moving the covers off of her. "Regina."

She was met with the bathroom door slamming in her face.

* * *

By the time Emma had entered the kitchen, Regina had cooled down and was setting whole wheat toast and a parfait at the table for Emma. It pleased the blonde to note that Regina had used the chocolate almond milk with the oatmeal, a treat she rarely got to have.

"Still trying to make me eat healthy?" Emma teased before sitting at the table and taking a spoonful of the oatmeal, yogurt and fruit concoction in her mouth, moaning at the delight.

"I don't see you complaining," Regina said placing her own plate beside her and sitting.

"It must be my birthday." The blonde licked the chocolate oatmeal off her spoon in satisfaction.

"Not quite," Regina said dryly.

Emma's phone beeped making the blonde frown. "I have to go in early to open the station."

Regina pursed her lips but nodded in understanding as her wife stood and exited the kitchen. She sighed into her bowl, playing with the band on her ring finger in contemplation. Did she really forget?

Emma marched back into the kitchen hurriedly. "I forgot something."

Regina's face brightened but it quickly fell when Emma moved past her to grab a Tupperware from the cabinet and spooned her parfait into the container, the toast in her mouth. She swallowed her bite before moving around the table and placing a kiss on Regina's cheek. "Love you."

Regina watched Emma leave the house this time, her lips parted in confusion and slight anger before pushing her own breakfast away.

* * *

Regina typed diligently on her computer, her anger from the morning still evident. After thirty years, how on earth could Emma forget the significance of _today_ of all days? Her wife had never missed an anniversary for the last 29 years, and the part of Regina that still feared rejection and abandonment surfaced, worried that the blonde had finally reached her elapsed time of contentment.

Maybe Emma was bored. Maybe her feelings had simmered down to near non-existence. Whatever it was Regina did not like this feeling.

She bit at her thumb nail, a nasty habit, but one that was a telltale sign she was worried. Filling out reports weren't doing her any good, so she pushed her laptop away from her and rubbed her temples clockwise with her fingertips.

Determined, Regina picked up her phone and promptly dialed the Sheriff's station where Emma overlooked the new Sheriff as she filled in as the deputy. A robbery gone wrong left Emma with a fractured hip over ten years ago that just didn't heal properly, forcing Emma to resign from her position. Despite the change of title, it didn't stop the residents of Storybrooke to look to their Saviour as the Sheriff.

"Hey stranger," Emma grinned into the phone. "You have to keep this short, I hear the Mayor doesn't like me taking personal phone calls."

Regina rolled her eyes at the greeting she'd heard over and over again whenever she called from her office. "I'm sure she'll make an exception. Lunch?"

"I'll see you in twenty."

* * *

Regina waited eagerly for Emma to show up, determined to drop hints at the significance of the day in order to spare the blonde's feelings. Her face lit up when the woman in question stumbled into the diner, immediately seeking out Regina's gaze before walking over to her wife and sitting across from her.

"I ordered for you," Regina said as soon as Emma sat.

"Grilled chicken salad?" Emma guessed before a basket of sliders and fries was set down before her. She looked up at Regina with a confused but pleased expression on her face. "What happened to clogging my arteries prematurely?"

"I figured I'd give you a reprieve for_ today_," the brunette hinted but was met with Emma picking up a slider and biting vigorously into the burger.

Regina mentally scowled. This was going to be tougher than she thought.

"Anything special planned for this evening?" Regina asked stabbing into her salad with unnecessary force.

Emma dipped her fries into a wad of ketchup, savouring the salt and grease she hadn't had in ages. "Henry will be coming into town around 7. Dinner here around 7:30."

Regina stared at her incredulously and asked with pursed lips. "That's it?"

"What, you want us to throw a party 'cause the kid's back in town?" Emma snorted.

"First of all, he's our son and his visits aren't as often as we'd like," Regina began, her tone rising. "Second of all, you're still an idiot."

With a final glare Regina stood and stalked out of the diner leaving a dumbfounded Emma in her wake.

Regina took a look at the bracelet she had bought for her wife earlier that month. Relationships were never her strong suit, and the fact that they had survived thirty years of marriage was more than just a milestone for the brunette. Picking out the bracelet, engraving it with their anniversary date inside two intertwined hearts, meant so much to Regina.

The same could not be said for Emma who couldn't even remember it was their anniversary.

She sighed and hid the box containing the bracelet back into her purse before she stood and made her way into the washroom to primp for their dinner with Henry and his family.

She refused to speak to the blonde when Emma knocked on the washroom door looking like a scared puppy. The look of sad wide eyes was almost enough to make Regina cut the girl some slack, but she wasn't once the Evil Queen for nothing. Instead, the brunette remained indignant giving her wife the silent treatment, laying out Emma's clothes like she did whenever they had a special occasion to attend since the blonde still didn't have a sense of fashion regardless of who she was married to.

It wasn't until both women were dressed and in Emma's vintage (but Regina deemed it old) Mustang convertible, the beetle having driven its last mile within the first five years of their marriage, did Emma attempt to speak. "Are you going to tell me what's wrong?"

Regina brushed her hair back, flicking the brown locks mixed with wisps of grey behind her ears before crossing her arms and staring out the window. "If you have to ask then you're not very intuitive."

Emma resisted an eye roll. "Why are you mad? You're usually ecstatic when Henry and the kids come down. You didn't even bake."

"Perhaps I just _forgot_."

Emma pulled into a spot just down the street from the diner and parked, turning her body to face Regina's. "Whatever it is I'm sorry."

Brown eyes flashed before Regina was out of the car in an instant. She peered into the car and spoke. "You don't even know what you're apologizing for."

With that, she slammed the door shut, satisfied at the rusty creak it emitted before marching off towards the diner.

"Can't you just tell me?" Emma asked, scurrying after her wife at a brisk walk, her hip preventing her from going any faster.

Regina turned on the spot when she reached the pathway to Granny's, the movement so sudden Emma almost crashed into the older woman. "We got married today, and you couldn't care less."

Without giving her time to respond, Regina walked the short distance to the entrance and pulled the door open with force.

"Surprise!"

Regina stood frozen in the doorway as the cheer from the crowd in the diner sounded. Under a banner that read 'Happy Anniversary' stood Henry and Paige and their two children Marie and Sam, in the corner was Abigail and Frederick, Archie holding up a frail Marco, Ruby dressing eerily like her departed grandmother behind the counter, and even Snow and David, beaming happily.

"I didn't forget," Emma said from behind Regina placing a hand on her wife's waist and pressing a kiss just above her ear. "I couldn't forget the best day of my life."

Regina turned to look at Emma, completely floored by the surprise party. Emma just grinned smugly leading her wife into the diner through the throng of people as they made their way to their friends and family.

* * *

The party was a success with toasts to good health, to less bickering, and to the next thirty years of marriage. Regina couldn't stop the smile that had formed on her face all night as they returned home, falling into bed and naturally succumbing to the safety in each other's arms.

The next morning, Regina sat on their porch watching Emma chase Sammy around the front yard, the six-year old making his grandmother work to catch him. He eventually slowed down letting Emma pick him up in her arms before moving towards the large apple tree where Marie was lying under, engrossed in her cell phone deciding just last year when she had turned twelve she was much too cool to be hanging out with her baby brother and grandma. Emma didn't think so and proceeded to drop Sammy onto her back, laughing at her granddaughter's glare.

Regina smirked as Emma stole Marie's phone, clearly teasing the pre-teen as she had done to Henry when he had gone through such a stage before returning the device and leaving the siblings to play under the shade. She raised an amused eyebrow when Emma approached her, a hand on her back.

"Kid's gonna make me a cripple," the blonde groaned before taking a seat next to Regina on the bench.

The brunette shifted to face Emma. "You're halfway there already. Perhaps we should consider investing in a wheelchair for you."

Emma glared playfully before swiping Regina's coffee, making a face at the decaf. Instead of returning the mug, she laced her fingers through the brunette's. Over the years, her palms had become thin and nimble, but laced with Emma's, it was as if no time had passed.

"I met you right here," Emma said quietly breaking the silence. "You were running from the house and you didn't even notice me."

"Like how I felt yesterday?" The brunette teased.

"Payback's a bitch." Emma shrugged playfully earning herself a smack on the shoulder.

Regina smirked. "You weren't exactly my priority then."

Emma turned to face her wife. "How am I doing now?"

Regina narrowed her eyes as if contemplating her answer. "You've been bumped up on the list."

Emma grinned closing the small distance to peck her wife's lips. She set the mug by their feet before leaning back to dig her hand into the pocket of her jeans, still form fitting but nowhere near the tightness of her skinnies. Removing a long velvet box, Emma opened the lid to reveal a stunning pearl necklace.

Regina gasped, pressing a palm to her chest and another to her lips.

Emma leaned in closer so their faces were inches apart. "Happy 30th anniversary, Regina."

She kissed her again, more than a peck this time before pressing their foreheads together. Neither woman could contain their smile as Emma weaved the pearl necklace around her wife's neck.

"And you thought I forgot," Emma chuckled. "I'm not _that_ old. I still remember our first kiss."

"Are you referring to the time you kissed me to convince Hook you weren't interested in him?" Regina mused.

"I'm referring to the time I kissed you then told you it was to get him off my back," Emma smirked.

Regina shook her head amused. "What else do you remember?"

"The blue dress on our first date," Emma began listing off with nostalgia and joy in her eyes. "When you told me you love me. The day I moved in."

"You remember the milestones," the brunette teased.

"I remember coming home from work one day, and I was tired and cranky, and I could tell you were mad I didn't call," Emma recalled. "The annoyance was on your tongue, but you just looked at me, you got up from bed, and you wrapped around me and just smiled, just happy I was there."

Regina narrowed her eyes not even recalling the memory explicitly.

"I remember a lot more than the milestones." Emma grinned her usual cocky smile before tapping Regina's new necklace. "I'm gonna get you a diamond one in thirty years."

"Promise?"

"I do." The confidence in Emma's tone was as strong as the day she first said them thirty years ago, and Regina had to kick herself for ever doubting the blonde.

"I love you," she said before pressing her lips against her wife's.

She leaned her head against Emma's shoulder revelling in the soft pressure of Emma's head against hers as they watched Marie chase Sammy, phone in his hand, around the front yard.

* * *

**FIN**

**Bonus points to whoever can answer the title's riddle. **


End file.
